


Nobody Knows

by Fire_Bear



Series: Birthday Paladins [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, Gen, Surprise Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-23 22:52:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13798032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Bear/pseuds/Fire_Bear
Summary: Shiro has something he needs to discuss with Allura. Unfortunately, no-one seems to know where she is.And there seems to be something else going on, too...





	Nobody Knows

**Author's Note:**

> This was a mistake. I can't write POV Shiro. ^^"

It was with a jolt of surprise that Shiro realised that he was alone in the Castle's bridge. He had been so absorbed in the convoluted information provided by the Blade that he hadn't noticed that everyone else had gone. Oddly, that included Allura who was usually around whenever Shiro came out of a reverie. Not even Coran could be seen, hopping from control to control. How long had he been alone? Stretching, he realised that he had quite a few kinks in his back and neck - he must have been there for longer than usual.

Intent on speaking with Allura, Shiro stalked towards the door. As he passed through it, he saw Coran hurrying towards him. For some reason, the Altean looked worried. Shiro raised a hand in greeting.

“Hello, Coran. Is something wrong?”

“Wha-?” Coran seemed surprised to see him. “Oh, well, nothing wrong, _per se_. Or, rather, everything is just fine and dandy.” He glanced behind Shiro and seemed to notice where they were, jerking upright. “Well, I was just going to check on the... uh... the... polar magnetic, um, juice.”

Shiro blinked, realised he was talking about something to do with Altean technology, and nodded solemnly. “Right. Have you seen the Princess? I was hoping to have a word with her.”

“Oh! The Princess! She is…” Coran stroked his moustache, clearly trying to think of where he’d last seen her. “I believe she is relaxing so you may find her in the lounge.”

“Ah, thank you,” said Shiro with a smile. “Good luck with your… polar thing.”

They parted ways, stepping around each other. Coran seemed to sigh in relief. Shiro decided to chalk it up to general Coran weirdness and continued on his way.

* * *

Lance was in the lounge when Shiro reached it, sprawled languidly across an entire couch. With his limbs splayed out as if he had merely fallen into it, Shiro couldn’t help but think that he was going to hurt himself. Especially when, as Lance looked up at him, he began to slide off. Lance slammed a foot down to stop himself and used an arm to pull himself upright using the back of the couch as leverage.

“Hey, Shiro,” said Lance, looking puzzled. “I thought you were going over… uh… trade routes?”

Raising an eyebrow, Shiro nodded. “I’ve come across something I’d like to talk to Allura about. Have you seen her?”

As if he was searching for her, Lance's eyes darted around the room. “Nooooope?” Lance said, shrugging a shoulder. “Not in here, anyway. Oh!” His eyes returned to Shiro's, grin wide. “She _was_ here when I got here but she left with Hunk. They said something about Hunk teaching her how to cook his favourite dishes.”

“Really?” asked Shiro in amazement. He hadn't noticed that Allura was a budding chef. Maybe she'd be a little better than Coran…

“Yeah.” Lance grimaced. “He said something about how she’ll need to cook it for him if he's ever out of action.”

Shiro couldn't help smiling at that. It sounded like a Hunk thing to do. “Well, I’ll go see how they're getting on. Wanna come with?”

“Nah,” said Lance, waving him away. Strangely, he looked relieved. “Hunk banned me from the kitchen due to my awesome flirting.” He sent Shiro a wink and the Black Paladin rolled his eyes.

“Makes sense,” he said and left Lance to his lounging. When the door slid shut behind him, though, he was sure he heard the murmuring of Lance's voice.

* * *

Somehow, the kitchen was in disarray, more so than usual. Trays of food covered all the counters. A couple of ovens appeared to be on, the heat making it seem almost tropical. What looked like icing bags had been left half filled at various places. When Shiro peered at the nearest tray, he was sure the neon green and orange things were supposed to be tapas.

Hunk stood among it like a general in his war room. He looked nervous when he spotted Shiro and quickly looked away. “Oh, hi, Shiro!” he said, voice unnaturally high.

He couldn’t help frowning at him. “What's wrong, Hunk?” Shiro asked. Perhaps he had done something in the kitchen that he shouldn't have and was worried that Shiro would be mad. That wouldn't happen, Shiro thought - there was no way he could be angry at Hunk when he looked so uncomfortable.

“Nothing!” Hunk quickly replied, waving his hands around as if he could bat the question away. “What about you? What's up?”

“I’m looking for Allura,” Shiro told him after a short pause. He would leave his concerns alone for now - but he would definitely look into it in the future. “Lance told me she came here to try cooking?”

“Ahaha, yeah!” exclaimed Hunk, sounding more like himself now that the focus was off him. “She wanted to learn some stuff. But, uh, _wow_! She nearly burnt my attempt at cupcakes. Burnt them, Shiro! I, uh, may have frightened her when I yelled and took emergency action.”

“Ah,” said Shiro, imagining Hunk's yelling as he threw hot trays around. He had the feeling that even _he_ would be terrified in Hunk's kitchen during a disaster. “Did you ask her to leave?”

Hunk grimaced and Shiro felt that he'd gotten to the root of Hunk's nervousness. “Not exactly… She kinda… left… on her own.”

“Do you know where she went?”

“Oh. Uh. Um... I-I think she said something about seeing Pidge?" Hunk suggested, visibly wincing.

Raising an eyebrow, Shiro nodded. "I see. So down at her workshop?"

"Yeah," Hunk agreed, letting out a heavy breath.

"Hm." Shiro eyed Hunk for a moment, noting how nervous he seemed once more. Finally, he decided to let up, his mind returning to what he wanted to speak to Allura about. "Well, I'm looking forward to dinner. It looks good, as usual." And, with an encouraging smile, Shiro left the room.

However, since Hunk had messed with the door's controls and left it open, Shiro could clearly hear him speaking. He stopped and listened in, frown deepening in confusion as he listened. "Pidge!" Hunk said, urgently. "I'm sorry – he's going to your workshop!" There was a pause and then Hunk added, "I panicked! He was looking at me with his... his Space Dad eyes!" Another pause. "Okay. Yeah, sure, cool." Then there was a sound like Hunk had taken a deep breath before he began to clatter around the kitchen.

Intrigued, Shiro made his way towards Pidge – and, hopefully, some answers.

* * *

When Shiro reached the hangar Pidge usually worked in, she was fiddling with some wires attached to some sort of machine that he wasn't entirely sure he remembered them having. She glanced up when he entered and tilted her head to one side. "Hey, Shiro," she said. "What're you doing down here?"

"Looking for Allura," Shiro answered.

"Ah. More work," said Pidge, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah," said Shiro, a little sheepishly. "So, have you seen her?"

"She was here a little while ago," Pidge told him with a shrug of his shoulder. "But she's gone now. Have you tried her room?"

Shaking his head, Shiro sighed. "No. I suppose I should have just called her from the bridge."

"Probably."

Shiro was about to leave when he remembered Hunk speaking to Pidge. And, looking at her closely, he could see a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek. He wondered if she'd run all the way down here. Yet, if she had come from the kitchen, Shiro would have seen her passing him. So where had she come from? And how had she spoken to Hunk?

"Pidge," he said, determined to get to the bottom of this. "I heard Hunk talking to you a little while ago. Care to explain?"

Looking up, Pidge gazed at him for a moment. Then she shrugged. "Sometimes Lance bothers Hunk in the kitchen and, when he's thrown out for trying to taste everything, he comes down here to bug me. Me and Hunk made a communicator so we could tell each other when he was on his way so we could hide all the important stuff. Or lock the door." Pidge grinned at him. "It's very effective."

"I see," said Shiro. He thought on that information for a moment. "Well, maybe that could be useful around the Castle for everyone else? Maybe you could try making some more."

"Sure," Pidge replied with a shrug of her shoulder. "I'll get to it after this." She gestured to the machine.

"Oh? What's that?"

At that question, Pidge hesitated. "I'm trying to figure out how to make our Paladin armour invisible without increasing the weight of it. I mean, I managed it for the Green Lion so I figured I could do it smaller."

"Huh! That sounds like a great idea, Pidge. Good thinking!"

"Thanks," said Pidge, giving him a small smile. "Well... Better get back to it..."

"Right. Remember to get some sleep at some point," Shiro told her, sternly as he began to walk backwards out of the room.

"I will if you will," Pidge replied.

Chuckling, Shiro turned and made his way out. The familiar noise of Pidge frantically typing reached him. Yet, something still bothered him about his encounters with everyone since he'd left the bridge. Had something happened that they were trying to keep him from finding out? And why?

He had the feeling that, if he found Allura, the mystery would likely be solved.

* * *

On his way to the bedrooms, he passed the training deck. As he approached the doors, he heard something from behind them. Shiro stopped, put his hands on his hips, and sighed. Clearly, Keith was obsessively training yet again. No doubt, he'd continue until he had hardly any before the day started anew tomorrow.

Heading towards the doors, he watched them slide open to reveal Keith desperately keeping two training droids off him with elegant sweeps of his blade. However, he seemed to be in difficulty as he was breathing heavily, openings all over the place. Shiro wasn't that surprised when one of the droids managed to whack Keith's side. He flinched but stood his ground, quickly reversing his swipe to attack the droid. It dodged back and its companion grabbed Keith's shirt and flung him away, towards the door. Keith landed at Shiro's feet where he rolled, probably to get to his feet, stopped, glanced up and scrambled to get out of the way as the droids brought their staffs down on his head.

"End training sequence!" Keith gasped out as he stopped a few feet from Shiro. The droids disappeared and Keith let himself sag, taking in deep breaths. "Shiro," he said, sounding breathless. "What're you doing here?"

"To make sure you don't overdo it," Shiro told him with a wry smile. "You should get some rest, go to bed. Some sleep will do you good."

Keith snorted, raising an eyebrow. "And what're _you_ doing here? Aren't you here for training, too?"

Shiro sighed and ran a hand through his hair, rubbing at the back of his head before he let his hand drop. "I'm looking for Allura. But I keep missing her somehow."

"Hmm." Keith gave him a suspicious look before raising his eyes to the ceiling as he thought. "Have you tried the dining room? I saw her heading to the kitchen with Hunk so maybe she went there to eat?"

"She might be," Shiro said. "But Hunk said she'd been down in the hangar with Pidge and I was going to check her bedroom."

"The dining room seems more likely," Keith insisted, folding his arms over his chest. "And, if she's not there, I'll help you find her."

Surprised, Shiro nodded. "Thanks."

"But you have to go to bed once you've spoken to her," Keith added, grabbing his jacket from the side of the room. He gave Shiro a smirk as he pulled it on and made his way to the door.

"Yeah, yeah," Shiro said with a sigh.

They made their way through the corridors in silence. Shiro was going over everything he had to speak to Allura about while Keith, he was sure, was more tired than he was letting on. The younger Paladin set a leisurely pace and Shiro followed his lead so he wouldn't collapse from exhaustion. Every so often, Keith poked at his ear, grimacing.

"Something wrong?" Shiro eventually asked.

"Oh, uh, my ear popped," Keith replied, not looking at him.

"Ah." He frowned at Keith, sure that Keith wasn't being entirely truthful. "Well," he settled on saying, "if it gets worse, make sure you talk to Coran. Okay?"

"Okay," Keith repeated, though he still didn't look at Shiro.

They spent the rest of the walk in silence, Shiro worrying about Keith and what he was hiding. Had he been injured in the last battle and decided to just 'walk it off'? Or had he contracted some sort of disease that he was particularly susceptible to due to his heritage? Was this affecting the rest of the team? It was another thing to talk to Allura about.

Finally, they reached the doors of the dining room. Shiro was about to open them when Keith shoved his way forward to do the honours. Blinking, Shiro managed to say, "Wha-?" before Keith shoved the doors open and they were greeted with sounds and flashes of light.

It took Shiro a moment to parse what was going on. A chorus of shouts formed the words "Happy birthday!" Noises somewhat like muted fireworks came to him shortly after each of the colourful lights. He blinked a few times and soon realised that he was looking at a version of indoor fireworks which were in the colours of the Lions, though purple had been substituted for black. Everyone was gathered, grinning and raising glasses. The table was laden with the food Shiro had seen Hunk making in the kitchens. At the side, Pidge's machine rested, the fireworks bursting from it periodically. Above them, a banner had been hung, curving under its own weight. It said, _Happy birthday, Shiro!_ and each of the letters had been written in a different colour, the purple replaced with pink and orange.

Stunned, Shiro turned to Keith who shrugged with a grin. He reached up and removed something from his ear, holding it up so that Shiro could see the earpiece he had been wearing. His long hair had kept Shiro from seeing it. Shiro stared at him, still bewildered.

Then Lance burst into their brief bubble of silent conversation and grabbed hold of Shiro's good arm, yanking on it. "Come _on_ , Shiro, geez!" Lance exclaimed, tugging Shiro after him. "Don't just _stand_ there."

"Yeah," Pidge added. "You're gonna sit down, have some fun and _take a break_."

"I hope you like the food," Hunk told him as he held out a chair. Lance pushed Shiro down onto it and he let him, still feeling like he was in shock. "I made a variety, you know, in case you like something more than something else. Though, hopefully, you like all of it."

"Who won't love your food, Hunk?" said Lance with a scoff.

Allura, who was looking resplendent in her dress as usual, stepped forward. "Keith told us it was your 'birthday'," she explained. "Which Coran and I didn't realise was important until Lance informed us of why it was."

When Shiro looked at Lance, he turned red, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked away. "I mean..." he said with a shrug.

"I had no idea humans put so much stock into when you are born!" Coran exclaimed. "It's such a lovely idea, celebrating a person. Though I _am_ a little confused when they say it's your birthday and yet not your birthday."

Pidge sniggered as she plopped down onto a seat next to Shiro. "Yeah, Shiro. Are you even legally an adult?"

That snapped Shiro from his shock. He knew that he was blushing and he couldn't help smiling, pleased at what they'd all done for him. "Ha ha, Pidge," he said. "Did you even _try_ to explain leap years to them?"

"Well, _yeah_ , but I don't think they got it."

Shiro chuckled before looking around at them all, at all they'd done for him. He almost couldn't believe it. Who would have thought he'd ever have another birthday party? The only things missing were his family and friends on Earth. Then again, now he had new friends, new family – and they had gone to all this trouble.

"I didn't even realise it was my birthday," he admitted.

"Ah, technically, it's not," said Lance, sticking a finger in the air. "Pidge has been calculating Earth's dates for us and it's actually the twenty-eighth – but it's not a leap year so we're having to do this at 'night'. That way, it'll be over the twenty-eighth of February and the first of March."

Chuckling again, Shiro shook his head. "Still, I definitely didn't expect this. I'm honoured."

A hand came down on Shiro's shoulder and he looked up to see Keith smiling at him. "You deserve this," he said. "You're an amazing leader and a great friend-"

"Woah, woah, Keith," Lance interjected, frowning at him. He wagged a finger in reprimand. "Remember the rules."

"Rules?" Shiro asked, amused.

Pidge sighed. "Yeah. Lance has managed to bring _rules_ into a party."

"The whole point of this is that Shiro takes a break from fighting a war," Lance told them, clearly ignoring Pidge. "So we're not allowed to mention Voltron or Zarkon or who's leader and who's not. This is a party for our _friend_ and we're not bringing... well... _work_ into this."

"I'm not sure being a paladin of Voltron can be considered 'work'," Hunk said, face screwed up in thought.

"Hunk!" Lance exclaimed. "You just broke the first rule!"

Shiro couldn't help laughing at their antics as Lance made Hunk recite the rules. He kept laughing when, with a smirk, Pidge pointed out that, by going over the rules so much, _Lance_ was the one talking about Voltron more than anyone else. That shut him up and had everyone laughing. But it made Shiro relax and, as Lance brushed past that mistake with a blush, it left a distinct party atmosphere in its wake. Shiro felt content as they began to eat, his heart swelling at the fact that they had gone to so much trouble for him.

And it swelled even more when he was dragged to his bedroom at the end of the night with makeshift presents: a communicator from Pidge, connected to the others; a 'cake' of sorts from Hunk who hadn't been able to think of anything else; 10 'free spa sessions' from Lance, to be conducted by Lance; some sort of hat from Coran which flopped over in front of his eyes and had 'Team Voltron' sewed onto it; a song sung by Allura, an Altean lullaby meant to make him sleepy so he'd go to bed; and 10 'free sparring sessions' from Keith which Lance claimed was because he'd copied the Blue Paladin. He could barely remember the last time he had felt so happy and Shiro decided to make sure he'd treasure it.

Even if he'd be hard at work again in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Lance was actually the one to organise it and to suggest to Pidge the communicators so they could talk to each other without broadcasting through the ship. Keith was making so many mistakes because he'd only just reached the room and picked a random number for a training sequence... And Allura was hiding behind that machine in the hangar so she could carry it up to the dining room for Pidge.


End file.
